Show Business: The Ratings

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It is not that movies are better than ever on television but that the new television series are worse. Last week, according to the latest Nielsen survey, four of the top-rated seven programs were old films, and not a single new-show was titillating enough to crack the top ten. The first-and second-ranking shows were parts one and two of Steve McQueen's 1963 film, The Great Escape—CBS had shrewdly cut the 170-minute feature into two installments, and played them on successive nights. The rest of the leaders, in order: Bonanza (NBC), 20th Century-Fox's What a Way to Go! with Shirley MacLaine (NBC), Family Affair (CBS), Gomer Pyle (CBS), Paramount's Fun in Acapulco with Elvis Presley (NBC). No. 81 and last: Good Company (ABC), F. Lee Bailey's impression of the old Person-to-Person show.